Freelance vs Employment

Now, I don't know this information personally, but here is some advise that some people have given me when I asked a similar question in the past. Keep in mind though that this advice was focused primarily towards art in video games and it may be different for graphic design or movies.

Employment in the art field is very volatile. You are hired on into a group during a project, and there is a chance you will be let go after the project is done. Either way you will be continuously looking for work. The only difference between freelance and employment is who you are advertising yourself towards. When freelancing, you are advertising directly to the customers. With employment, instead you are advertising to a group manager which in turn is advertising to the customers.

I already have a job as a graphic designer and photographer. I don't think I'd want to rely on freelance with my digital paintings but I wouldn't mind working for a boss + as a freelancer on the side, like I already do. Keeps everything more fun.
Isn't relying on freelance jobs alone risky? I don't think you can get money when you're ill or too old to hold a pen to pay for your needs, unless you make lots of money and save that up for later. Freelance heavily depends on your marketing skills!

With freelance, its bit more risky, but, your free to do whatever. You make your own schedule, wake up whenever you want and work whenever you want in a way. What if you get sick? That doesn't mean anything to the client and you have to work through it if you under contract. If you want to take off and go on vacation then you have to save up the money to do so. It's 50% business and 50% Art. You'll need to be good at both.
When it comes to employment, after a project is done and if your let go, you name is there so finding a new job shouldn't be to hard. As long as your known as a good person that can work with others. Kinda the same thing applies for freelance but with studios, they like people that can work in a team which is very important. If your not good with working others but good at art then freelance might be better. So it's about who you are as a person. If you don't see yourself working with others well or basically being a team player then freelance might be the way to go. Hope this helps.

Side note this is information I've received from various artist in both cases. Could've wrote even more but this should be good enough. Also this is the perspective from people in Videogames.

Being employed is great. Benefits. Equipment. New social scene. Your not sitting in your room all day. You can do other stuff besides draw when you get home if you want, etc.

However, when you are employed under contract or hourly rate for a job there is risk there just as much as there is for freelance i think. You can lose the job, your contract doesn't get renewed, the company can go under, you have to go from contract to contract every couple of years, you have a crappy art director, or no art director, and you don't draw what you want really want too necessarily every day...you are hired for your drafting skills so to speak.

You have to follow style guides and make things a certain way. Their way.

Sometimes this can happen. -- Lets say the company is contracted out to make products or elements for games like (and just use these games an example it could be anyone) Borderlands, and WOW. Can you draw panda people, and orcs and stuff, or make them in 3d whatever you were hired for? Yes? Great. Can you now switch your whole mind set the next week to work on the borderlands product? You better know how to follow that style guide or make your own and have a lot of ref. It doesn't always work like that, but depending on who you work for it can. Conceptart companies full of artists are hired like that for that very reason. And its what they do.

Consider doing this when going to the company that you are applying too; Make sure you ask a lot of questions in the interview about their work load, what the department is like, what their production pipeline process is like, what a work day looks like etc, because each job is different.

However with freelance you usually have an art director who has seen your portfolio, or a small time individual, or a company who hires out and wants you to draw it in your style. They've seen your style, they like your style. If they are good, they understand to expect that style. ----- If they are inexperienced or bad...which happens a lot too....they can hire you and then say, I want you to draw it like this style...and you are like, "What? I don't know that style...", or make me this crazy ass thing that is a really really bad idea but I need you to make it anyway. And they are really poor at communicating shape language (aka art language).

Some companies who hire freelancers don't pay until publication. Period. There's so many different parameters and subtleties that you have to balance for either one.

The one thing that I want to say though is that if you are freelancing. You have to hustle. You have to get up at 7am and work until 7pm or later sometimes. You are selling yourself. You are marketing, emailing, phone calls, social media, draftsman and idea person all in one. You have to grind and hustle hard to make that paper. HAWD!

I schedule every day according to what it is that I need to do during the week let alone set aside time for making art. Finding clients, doing social media. Doing THIS what I'm doing right now during a break.

Also check out ArtPact. Use their template contracts and customize them for yourself.

The goal seems to be a lot around here that, "I want to land a job in the concept art world, or gaming industry one day." If you are a freelancer you already are the job.

i have my own small business in art and i must say it is hard.
The biggest advantage is that i can make whatever I want without people bossing me around. Cons are you need to know how to become popular and people will need to find you so you can sell your art. This is harder than you think! Took me over 2 years and im still learning!
Also, if you get ill or get an injury, you still have to finish work. I experienced this the hard way.
. When you are an employee you can't do just whatever you want but you will have a steady income for the period your contract dictates.

Personally im all for contracts with some freelance on the side. having a job with a contract also means you'll get to make friends. You could try it out but personally I think freelance is way harder than having a contract where your boss handles the customers.

Each one has its pros and cons!

I am by no means a working professional, but I will share the information I have learned thus far from other artist :

Another one from Chris Oatley / Noah Bradley , which also shares a lot of values is
http://chrisoatley.com/freelance-illustration/

And last and not least, instead of relaying on one octopus leg, have multiple octopus legs so when one gets chopped off you still have the other. Which in this case an example would be @kigerneko which she is doing both Photography / Design.

It's something that Bobby Chiu talks about, of having multiple octopus legs and marketing yourself.

Like whether you work as a freelance or employer, having multiple sources of income will help a lot. (Patreon, gumroad, digital goods, teaching etc.)

I hope these also give some overviews with all the points shared in this thread.

I've been working for over 16 years in the industry, and I'm still a little apprehensive about going freelance.

Freelance is great option if you have a sterling reputation, a plethora of contacts, and a tremendous amount of notoriety. Most of the freelancers that get steady work seem to be renown for a particular style.